TOPS Background and Mission

The goal of TOPS is to create, build, promote and maintain a better humanity by addressing needs of people in our society. We do this by caring for those in need and building a movement for justice.

Founded in 1994 by a former drug addict, TOPS is a faith-based organization that offers hope and creates comprehensive community programs that provide a continuum of unconditional acceptance and care to individuals and their families who suffer the effects of drug addiction, mass-incarceration, homelessness, poverty, unemployment, hunger and illness--—-without regard to race, sex, creed, color, religion, or social status. TOPS seeks to restore people wholly--spiritually, physically, emotionally, mentally.

TOPS is also engages in grassroots organizing to address the needs of the community. We organize to develop productive community members (leaders) and build community power through increased community participation--through voting, education, service, and decision-making about life in our communities. TOPS organizes to help spark a social and political movement in Alabama and across the South for justice, fairness, and human rights. We develop advocacy strategies that create space for community members to address issues at the local and state level.

TOPS organizes everyone willing to work for a better community, including young people, elders, formerly incarcerated people, people who are addicted to drugs, the homeless, and more. We have a particular focus on working with formerly incarcerated people, through helping them to restore their rights and meet their responsibilities as citizens in order to form a movement; and with young people, by working to end the schools-to-prison pipeline and develop leadership amongst ALL our youth.